translated by Giorgina Arcuri

Art Basel has started and the buyers have arrived. However, the Americans are missing. This seems to be the biggest complaint on behalf of operators. The American public has stepped aside and given way to the Europeans. It is not a change that affects the number of transactions, but rather an actual geographic shift of the market. This does not worry all the art gallery managers, some of whom have proven to be indifferent with respect to who buys the works. Also because many of the participants are too busy calculating their business volume to worry about the nationality of the buyers.For instance, the New York gallery PaceWildenstein has declared some of the sales realized during the first 24 hours of the fair: works of the new artists bought from the gallery, Zhan Xiaogang and Zhang Han, achieved between 200,000 and 700,000 dollars. “Dialogue di Lee Hufan” totalled between 300,000 and 500,000 dollars. Other works by Sol LeWit sold for amounts between 50,000 and 150,000 dollars.
The demand for Chinese art is generally high. A work by TianBeing Li, “Battle behind the table #2” sold for 195,000 dollars by L&M Arts. Acquavella sold a new artist, Zeng Fanzhi; his piece “Portait 08-2-1” was bought for an amount between 1 and 1.5 million dollars.
Acquavella also realized the sale of another important work by Lucian Freud, “Girl in Attic Doorway”, which would have been sold for an amount close to the price requested, equivalent to 12 million dollars. Rumour has it that the work was bought by the magnate Roman Abramovich after his recent purchase of “Benefits Supervisor Sleeping”, the record work sold for 33.6 million dollars. The news has not been confirmed. The gallery has only declared that the work was sold to a European collector.
Therefore, sales seem to be definitely interesting. Perhaps the American public is limited, but this does not seem to represent a problem.
Ivor Braka, a private London dealer, has admitted buying one of the most important sculptures by Damien Hirst, “But how do you really feel”. The price probably paid for the work is about 4 million dollars, but Braka did not want to reveal the amount, also because he has yet to decide what will be of this important work.
A relaxed and casual style characterizes the fair, in which sales seem interesting not only for the contemporary. Even Picasso’s quotations remain high and the Elvira González gallery in Madrid has sold two of his paintings dated from 1964 for about 3.5 million dollars altogether.
Yet not everyone is satisfied. One of the most important works presented at the fair is a splendid Willem de Kooning, “Woman”, estimated at about 14 million dollars. The gallery delegated to the sale is the New York Richard Feigen. According to the person in charge, the possible buyers proposed offers for about half the valuation of the work, considered too low by the seller.
However, the scene seems more prosperous than a few months ago at Art Basel Miami in December. For instance, Christophe Van de Weghe sold easily “Cowboy” by  Duane Hanson for 550,000 dollars; the work had been left unsold in Miami. The same  Van de Weghe sold “Imperfect Sculpture” by Roy Lichtenstein for 650,000 dollars and an acrylic by Rothko for 5 and a half million. The sale of Basquiat’s “The Dingoes That Park Their Brains with Their Gum” also did well, selling for 5.3 million dollars to a European buyer. Of course, it is not time to do the adding up but the first days of Art Basel seem to promise well for the European market.